This is a tutorial I decided to put together for all the people having difficulty out there, because I'm just nice like that (and bored)....

I know the DroidDev Team has released an app to do everything for you, and that's awesome and very convenient...but what if for some reason you don't want DroidMod ROMs for whatever reason? Not that their not AWESOME ROMs, I'm just saying what it you wanna try Bugless Beast or Bugless Beauty? Or some other cool new ROM that comes out in the future...

Well here you go.....a complete guide from scratch......

Let's Start with the SDK and ADB....

Ok....first, we need the Software Developer's Kit (SDK) for Android. You will need this time and time again on your computer to access ADB (Android Debug Bridge)...think DOS back in the "old days"....

Click this link, and at the Android Developers site scroll down and accept the License agreement and it should start to download automatically...(NOTE-THIS LINK IS FOR WINDOWS ONLY) And also their may be more installation requirements on that website...as well as Mac and Linux version downloads also...

After .zip file downloads, extract it, and click the Motorola_Consumer_Driver_Installation_MotoConnect_1.1.16_32_bit_4.2.0 file and it will install the drivers for you for your Droid...

1) After this installs to your computer, you need to find the directory in which it is located...
2) Which should be your local disk (C drive in My Computer or Computer...
3) Click that drive, and you'll see a folder named "android", click that folder and you'll see a folder named "tools"...
4) Finally, click the folder named tools.
5) Once your in the tools directory don't click anymore folders! See the address bar at the top? It'll say the names of those folders...right click that address bar and copy the address like you would a URL...
6) Now, the tricky part. Go to My Computer or Computer (depending on what version you have) and right click it
7) Click on Properties
8) Now click on Advanced System Settings (that's what it says in Windows 7)
9) Now click Environment Variables
10) Now in the little scroll box scroll down to where it says Path and DOUBLE-CLICK it
11) It'll bring up another window that says "Edit System Variable", in the Variable Value text box, go to the very end of the long text address that's in it, make sure the cursor is at the VERY END of the address, and paste the directory you copied in STEP 5

That SHOULD direct ADB straight to this directory in ADB Shell....otherwise you would have to enter this directory manually every time you used ADB...so yeah this is convenient in the long-run

4) Then, navigate to your sdcard in My Computer or Computer (it's called Removable Disk or something along those lines), right click the main top most file of your sdcard (don't go INTO your sdcard) and click paste

5) When it's done copying the file, turn off USB storage by pulling down the notification bar again and then click Unmount

6) Power off your Droid

7) Slide out the physical keyboard and hold down the "x" button, while continuing to hold that down, hold down the power button at the same time until the Motorola logo pops up then you can let them go

8) Instead of the Droid eye, you'll see a symbol kinda like this: /!\

9) Press and hold the volume UP button first, then press the camera button

10) You'll see a menu pop up, using the D-pad on the physical keyboard, navigate down to the last option, which is something like "install: /sdcard/update.zip"

11) Select that, and allow it to install...when it's done navigate back up to "reboot"

And you've just rooted your Droid!!!!! :icon_ banana: Yayyyy!!!!!

Okay now that you've rooted....you wanna install all these cool new ROMs right? Well you're gonna need something else before you do that too so just hang tight...

Now Let's Get On To SPRecovery 0.99.3b....

Download these 2 files:

flash_imageSPRecovery 0.99.3b image
1) Whenever these files are finished downloading, place them on your sdcard the EXACT same way you placed the ROOT file on your sdcard in the above guide...then unmount your sdcard...but stay plugged into the computer via USB

2) On your Droid, go into Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure "USB debugging" is checked. (also, you may want to check "Stay Awake" because the first time that you ever type the command "su" a dialog box will pop up on your phone asking for root permissions...when this pops up, make sure check the "Remember" box BEFORE you click "Allow")

3) On your computer (WINDOWS), click on the Start button, in the Search bar at the bottom of the Start window, type "cmd" (without quotations) and hit enter

4) The command prompt will pop up and you will need to type these commands into the prompt EXACTLY AS THEY ARE:

Now after you enter that last command, it should reboot your phone into recovery. Remember how when you rooted and you went to that screen with a /!\ symbol and you had to press the volume and camera buttons?? Well if the above ADB commands were entered properly, and the 2 files were placed on the sdcard properly, then you should not get that screen again. You should instead get a slightly similar screen that should say created by SirPsychoS at the very top of the screen...as well as the version number which is 0.99.3b

Now You Have SPRecovery, Which Means You Can Now Install ROMs!!! :icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana:

Now you need to select reboot. With SPRecovery, you can now make backup copies of your current ROM, just in case something might ever happen....and this recovery has been one too many a life-saver for many, including myself....for recovering a potentially bricked Droid from what would've otherwise been doomed had it not been for SPRecovery...

When your phone reboots you need to Mount your sdcard to your computer, and then click on the sdcard file to where you can see all the files that are inside of it. Create a new folder within this directory, and name that folder "nandroid"...this is where all your backup ROMs will be stored by SPRecovery...

Now Let's Install a ROM!!!!

Since it's so popular at the moment, and it seems to have all the latest, most currently available goodies...I'll use Pete's Bugless Beast V0.5 ROM from over at alldroid.org as my example for installation....so all you newbs can follow these instructions exactly if you want it!! ONLY IF YOU'VE DONE THE PREVIOUS STEPS IN THIS POST THAT IS....

First I'll explain the nandroid installation.....

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ALWAYS PERFORM A NANDROID BACKUP BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW....

To do this, 1) Power phone off
2) Hold "x" plus the power button (in that order) and reboot into SPRecovery
3) Using the volume buttons to navigate, go down to backup/restore and select
4) Select Advanced Nandroid Backup
5) Select Set backup name
6) Make up a name so you recognize it later with physical keyboard and hit enter
7) Make sure all options are selected (BOOT, CACHE, DATA, MISC, RECOVERY, SYSTEM)
8) Select Perform backup9) When it's done, press power button to navigate back through windows, and select Reboot system now

3) The folder extracted will be a zip folder with a name like BDS-20100203-2015.zip, NOT .rar, do not use that one

4) Mount your Droid's sdcard, copy the zip file to the inside of that nandroid folder you created earlier

5) Unmount the Droid, power off and reboot into SPRecovery

6) Select Wipe data/factory reset, and then Wipe cache partition

7) Select backup/restore

8) Select Advanced nandroid restore, and select "Choose backup"

9) Choose the one you just downloaded....BDS-20100306-1702.rar

10) And the choose Perform restore..and when its done...go back and select Reboot system now

And there ya go!! :icon_ banana:

And I can trust you can figure out the update.zip version....its actually a bit more simpler than the nandroid....but that's about it!!!!!!! :icon_ banana::icon_ banana::icon_ banana:

=======================================

With all the new advances and developments from the devs, there is now a new alternate recovery image other than SPRecovery (mentioned above) that you have the option to install...sounds like a hassle, but I assure you it is definitely worth the extra 5 minutes to install the ROM that requires it...

Go here to check out koush's Cyanogen/Sholes ROM
And go here for more info on this recovery image

Installing ClockworkMod Recovery Image...(thank you koush!!)

1) Download "ROM Manager" from the Market

2) Select "Flash ClockworkMod Recovery" from the menu (first option)

Once you have successfully flashed the new recovery it is advised to make a backup immediately

Thank you, I know I had that in mind, especially with the SholesMod app thats on the Market now, but it will be here now for anyone that needs it in the future....especially the ADB part, a lot of people don't even know what it is....I know I didn't when I started doing this stuff, and it was a huge problem in everything I tried to do because I couldn't find anything about it hardly, I didn't even know where to start! But people need it and need to know what it is because its an essential part of Android hacking modding...

Hey thanks so much for putting this guide together:icon_ banana: I have a simple question regarding extracting the .rar files. When using winrar, when I extract the files, I get the .tar and other files but not .zip file. What am I am overlooking? Again great work on the guide!!

Hey thanks so much for putting this guide together:icon_ banana: I have a simple question regarding extracting the .rar files. When using winrar, when I extract the files, I get the .tar and other files but not .zip file. What am I am overlooking? Again great work on the guide!!

Click to expand...

thank you man...

i always select "extract here" after i move the file to my desktop so i can keep track...and the .zip file should be there...check again man its gotta be there somewhere

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